Music & More

Jersey Boys, the Four Seasons

My wife and I saw Jersey Boys last night. It was our first visit to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center). The show was fantastic and so was the venue. The guys playing the Four Seasons were all very good singers, especially Joseph Leo Bwarie who played Frankie Valli. The story of the group's formation and career was interesting. I learned some things about them that I hadn't known. I'm not going to go into specifics since I don't want to spoil that part of the show for anyone who hasn't seen it. The language at times was reminiscent of the Sopranos. TPAC is a great place to see a show. We had very comfortable orchestra seats in the Andrew Jackson Hall. There was enough space between the rows so that people could walk in front of you rather than climb over you to get to their seats. I'm no authority on acoustics but the sound level and quality seemed to be just right. Check the website at tpac.org for more info. 

A few days before the show, I got out my old Four Seasons albums for the first time in many years. It was good to hear Frankie "Falsetto" Valli again. My albums include "Golden Hits of the Four Seasons" from Vee Jay Records (1963),  "The Four Seasons Story", a double album with 28 songs from Private Stock Records, Ltd. (1975) and "Who Loves You" from Curb Records" (also 1975). Golden Hits included 12 songs of which 6 or 7 could be called "hits". Story has all of the real hits from "Golden" and many more. Both have "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Candy Girl", "Marlena", and "Ain't That a Shame". Story also has "Rag Doll", "Beggin'", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Dawn", "C'mon Marianne", "Opus 17", "Workin' My Way Back to You", "Let's Hang On", "Ronnie", "Bye Bye Baby", "Tell It to the Rain", "Save It for Me" and others. Story does not include "My Eyes Adored You" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You". I'll have to buy those songs on I-Tunes. The "Who Loves You" LP is notable for the title track and "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" among the 8 songs included. Valli on vinyl - still sounds great.

Garry Wills

"Negro President: Jefferson & the Slave Power" by Garry Wills crams in quite a a bit of fascinating information in its 230 pages plus notes. (It has nothing to do with Sally Hemings.) The jacket of the book contains an excerpt which explains what was meant by calling Thomas Jefferson the "Negro President". Those calling him so "were challenging his boast that the election of 1800 was a 'Second Revolution' based on the expressed will of a popular majority. It was no such thing, they argued. In terms of actual number of votes cast, John Adams was re-elected." While slaves had no rights, they were counted as 3/5's of a person for establishing a state's representation in the House of Representatives by a bargain struck at the Constitutional Convention known as the "federal ratio". This ratio enabled Jefferson and Burr to garner sufficient electoral votes to eliminate Adams from consideration. The book deals quite a bit with Jefferson foe Timothy Pickering (Secretary of State under Washington, followed by terms in the Senate and House), Aaron Burr, the Embargo of 1807, JQ Adams, etc. 

Wills is probably best known for "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America"(1992), however he has many other works to his credit including "Henry Adams and the Making of America" (2005), "Why I Am a Catholic" (2002), and "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government" (1999). 

Fun Country Songs

When it comes to funny songs by country music artists in the last 20 years, the king and his court of comedy has to be Brad Paisley and his co-writers. Before I go any further, let me say that the definition of "funny" is obviously very subjective. I recall my wife and I going to see the Mel Brooks film "Silent Movie" over 30 years ago. We thought it was awful. I don't recall either one of us laughing at anything. Yet there were other people in the theater laughing hysterically. There have been a lot of TV sitcoms over the years that have the laugh tracks going full blast and I sit there wondering what I'm missing. I'm sure there are shows that I'm in stitches over that others don't find funny. That's why I decided to call this post "Fun" rather than "Funny" country songs.

There's another issue. Is the song funny by itself or is it only funny as a music video? Or maybe the song is funny but the video makes it even funnier. 'I'm Gonna Miss Her" written by BP and Frank Rogers is a mildly amusing song with lines such as "I spend all day out on this lake and hell is all I catch". But if you've seen the video it becomes much funnier because images of Brad's wife Kimberly Williams throwing his stuff out the door, the takeoff on ESPN and Brad's facial expressions are going through your mind as you listen. Another song like that is Toby Keith's "I'm Not As Good As I Once Was", written with Scotty Emerick. It's a very good song, but again, only mildly amusing. The video is hysterically funny with TK popping the viagra, the girl with the teeth blacked out, the fight and the scene in the emergency vehicle. Whenever I hear the song I'm visualizing these things.

BP and friends do write songs that don't need a video to be funny. "Celebrity", a solo writing effort by BP, talks about how no talent's needed to be a celebrity these days thanks to reality shows, a celebrity gets community service no matter which law he breaks, etc., "You Need a Man Around Here" written with Kelly Lovelace has great lines like "you've got more candles than a midnight mass" and "I haven't seen a room this clean since they took my appendix out". "Online" with Kelly Lovelace and Chris DuBois, tells how a short fat asthmatic is "so much cooler on line" and "I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight every time that I log in". "I'm Still A Guy" with Lovelace & Lee Thomas Miller has lines like "you see a priceless French painting, I see a drunk naked girl" and "I don't highlight my hair, I've still got a pair". "Alcohol", another solo Brad effort, this time about what booze can do is probably best known for the line "helpin' white people dance".  

Terri Clark's #1 hit "Girls Lie Too" is a very funny song made even better by the video. Written by Kelley Lovelace, Tim Nichols and Connie Rae Harrington, it has great lines about women loving to hear about your round of golf, loving Hooters for the hot wings, not caring about thinning hair and wallets, "other guys never cross our mind", etc. The other guy who crosses the mind of the girl in the video is a Pirates of the Caribbean fantasy lover. In the video you get to see Terri rolling her eyes on the word "love" when she sings "we like your friends and we love your mom". At the end of the video, the girl's in bed dreaming of this other guy and, in her sleep, says "you're the best Johnny". Her dream gets interrupted by her hubby played by Wayne Newton saying "Who's Johnny Baby?"

"Trent Summar & the New Row Mob's "Horseshoes and Hand Grenades" was written by Trent & Michael Heeney. The line "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" is not original. I first heard that expression over 40 years ago. Wonder who coined it? Maybe it goes back to World War I. The singer is chatting up a babe in a bar who writes what he thought was her phone number on a coaster but "seems the number she gave belonged to a guy named Dave".

"I'll Think of a Reason Later", a Tim Nichols and Tony Martin song performed by Lee Ann Womack tells about a girl who hates the woman her ex-boyfriend is engaged to without meeting her even though she may be a Nobel Peace Prize winner or someone who cures baldness and cancer. She blacks out a tooth and draws horns with a marker on her picture in the paper.

"Continental Farewell" by Hal Ketchum - see my post of September 17th on HK, 2nd paragraph.

Collin Raye's "That's My Story (and I'm stickin to it)" written by Tony Haselden, Alex Hawkins and Lee Roy Parnell tells of a man who comes in around dawn from playing cards with the boys. He lies to his wife that he fell asleep in that hammock in the yard, not knowing that she had put the hammock in the attic last week. He tells her "That's my story and I'm (stutters) "s-stickin' to it".

In Trace Adkins' "I Left Something Turned on at Home" by Billy Ray Lawson and John Schweers, Trace sings "if I don't leave right now, my whole place might burn down, cause I left ..."

Pam Tillis' "Queen of Denial" by Pam, Bob DiPiero and Jan Buckingham, is a cute takeof on Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile about making excuses for a self-centered, "lying, cheating, cold dead beating, two-timing, double dealing, mean mistreating, loving heart". Oops that's also the guy Patty Loveless tells off in "Blame It On Your Heart" by Harlan Howard and Kostas.

I always liked the Joe Diffie song written by Kim E. Williams and Ken Spooner, "If The Devil Danced (in Empty Pockets), he'd have a ball in mine" which begins "Diablo Motors had a hell of a sale". The video is very funny too with the used car salesman taking the sucker.

Although this post deals with fun songs of the last 20 years, in honor of the late Jerry Reed I have to mention "She Got the Goldmine, I Got the Shaft" and "When You're Hot , You're Hot".

There are obviously many more fun country songs. What are your favorites?

Building Penn Station

As a commuter on the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station for over 28 years, I couldn't resist buying a copy of "Conquering Gotham, Building Penn Station and Its Tunnels" by Jill Jonnes. I found it last fall at the Green Valley Book Fair in Mount Crawford, Virginia which is just south of Harrisonburg off Interstate 81. (See www.gvbookfair.com.) It was not a book I was looking for. I hadn't seen a review or heard anything about the book or author although there are some reviews online. The book is 316 pages exclusive of notes and includes over 50 interesting pictures and illustrations. Add a star if you're from the New York metropolitan area. Although Ms. Jonnes does not appear to have her own website (jilljonnes.com is a Sioux Falls, South Dakota real estate website), there is plenty of online info on her and her books. "Eiffel's Tower", her latest effort, is due out in April.

Similar subjects have been treated by David McCullough in his books on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal, respectively "The Great Bridge" and "The Path Between The Seas". Like Mr. McCullough, Ms. Jonnes tells a real good story that is thorough but not overburdened by the technical details. As someone who is not the least bit mechanically inclined, I am in awe of the accomplishments of the men who  designed and built these bridges, canals, tunnels, etc. in an age that lacked today's sophisticated, computer operated machinery and other technological advances. The men who actually labored in the tunnels, the "sandhogs", risked the "bends", severe injury and death on a daily basis.

Under the heading "things I didn't know" rather than give a full accounting, I'll just mention a few things. I was surprised to find out that the PRR (Pennsylvania Rail Road) acquired the LIRR - described as "a small commuter road active mainly in the summer" - in May of 1900. The president of the PRR at the time was Alexander Cassatt, the brother of famous impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. Mr. Cassatt, Charles McKim, William H. Baldwin and Samuel Rea were totally unknown to me before reading this book. In contrast to some other industry leaders and Tammany Hall crooks, these were men of integrity as well as intellect. McKim was the designer of Penn Station and may be known to some since he was a partner in an architectural firm that included Stanford White.